Recruiting & personnel selection with blind spots: shortage of skilled workers homemade?

Not only since the participation in the ARD report "The fairy tale of the shortage of skilled workers" is this topic on Best of HR - Berufebilder.de® a long-runner. Because the apparent deficiency is often homemade.

TV show about a shortage of skilled workers

I have been dealing with the subject of a shortage of skilled workers for many years. 2014 I was eg in an ARD report on the topic of shortage of skilled workers, which you can look at here, The show was about whether we actually have a nationwide shortage of skilled workers in Germany.

The result of the search for the program was at that time that the labor market statistics on the subject are partly calculated incorrectly - where in the example of the program was mainly about a shortage of skilled workers among engineers.

My keynote topic

The books on the subject (advertising)

Now I have the topic in the context of GEWINN Conference “Women in the IT Industry: New Ways in HR Management” picked up again in Hamburg.

The joint project GEWINN (stands for gender. Background. computer science. Network), in which the Heilbronn University and the University of Siegen, among others, are involved, has that Objectiveto make research on gender and computer science usable in practice in order to support female young professionals in computer science on their way to top positions. It is administered by the Federal Ministry for Education and research (BMBF) funded.

Is there a shortage of skilled workers in Germany?

The shipment was preceded by a long-standing, very violent discussion, which began in 2011 with a contribution on the very topic we have come together here today: Above all Women more mathematical, engineering, scientific, technical subjects, MINT for short studieren to compensate for the (alleged) shortage of skilled workers. whereupon a young diploma lady reported and analogously wrote:

“This is all nonsense, stop promoting such MINT initiatives, it will only lead to more Boy Lured women into courses where you can’t find jobs afterwards.”

The bias in personnel selection

Discounts for your success (advertising)!

STEM initiatives still exist today. At the end of 2017, the digital association BITKOM published a labor market study and found that 55.000 IT- Positions remained vacant. And I deserve mine Money by advising employers on how to convince STEM professionals. Incidentally, most of my inquiries about this come from the IT area.

In the following, I would like to explain some of the research results and experiences how these discrepancies come about, before we start the discussion. Because I realized through my work as a consultant:

Companies are to blame themselves!

Search though Companys desperately for skilled workers, but it is not uncommon for them to be to blame for their misery. Because HR departments often have blind spots and don't see what you can do to help overcome the shortage of skilled workers.

For example when addressing potential specialists. I'm thinking of a boy Developer, who I spoke to at an event recently – and when I told him what I do, he lashed out at the stupid ones HRthat bugged him all the time on Xing.

Applicant approach as a problem when recruiting

Not an isolated case. For the Recruiting Trends Study surveyed the Center of Human Resources Information Systems (CHRIS) from the University of Bamberg Top 1.000 companies and the 300 largest companies from the IT sector in Germany. The results were combined with usage behavior results and ratings from over 2.800 Candidates compared.

The survey regarding the approach to applicants shows: Addressing potential Candidate is often far from ideal. And IT specialists in particular are really annoyed by HR managers or headhunters because they

• received too many uninteresting requests
• annoyed by inappropriate, standardized speeches
• fear, current employer sees open profile

As a result:

• One of 4 does not apply
• 2 by 10 avoid the channel in the future - I know that in the circle of acquaintances with Xing.
• 16 percent delete corresponding messages unseen
• and especially men blaspheme about spammers - I know that as I said in the circle of acquaintances.

Top executives are often overlooked

In addition, good workers are often simply overlooked. People like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos would probably never have been hired, Steve Jobs has even been thrown out of his own company at one point, Mark Zuckerberg left university without a degree.

In Germany, titles and certificates are still very popular, because one thing does not seem to have arrived in this country so far: You do not need a diploma to be really good at what you do. This shows up very much with developers, because they teach themselves a lot.

Education stays behind development

The Developer Community Stackoverflow annually surveys 100.000 developers worldwide. 87 percent of those surveyed recently stated that they would like to introduce themselves to a new programming language, framework or tool outside of their formal Vocational Training taught – for example via an online course, as more than 48 percent said in the survey.

This is also important, because employers are desperately looking for well-trained workers in special areas that are still so new that there is no training at all. yes fast like yourself Technology developed today, no curriculum can represent these changes.

Alternative educational pathways equivalent to formal education

Possible Solutions: Alternatives Education and programming experience should be considered equivalent to college degrees or formal training. On the other hand, employers are often unwilling to hire career changers and join them Further Training zu invest.

Because, so the reasoning, then the finished trained workers are wooed by the competition and you have invested in vain.

What do applicants want?

It is important for companies to be more geared towards what applicants want. This overview, also from the Monster / CHRISS study, shows what applicants want:

1. On 1 are good working conditions
2. Ranked 2 salary and benefits in kind
3. At 3 stands the corporate culture

And 68 percent of the applicants surveyed would like employers to do more for further training and Career.

Recruiting IT professionals - do's and don'ts

A former Customer I invested a year in training new ones Employees – and had a turnover rate of less than one percent. Her secret recipe was that she was otherwise above average in the staff invest, so they simply had no reason to be poached.

On the other hand, another customer, a medium-sized company in the depths of the Black Forest, which is also the world market leader in its industry: Despite a comparatively high level of awareness, there were difficulties in convincing qualified people of the remote location. They were repeatedly asked about flexible working hours and home office, what that is Problem maybe solved.

Work-life balance and home office

But they were very reluctant to introduce home offices, e.g. two days of teleworking, otherwise they insisted on presence.

In the US, it's still there: A cooperation partner of mine, the image database Shutterstock, lets its developers work worldwide. To network them and create an office workspace, all developers have a tablet standing next to the computer.

Important: Employers should realize how important one is Work-Life-Balance nowadays is. And that the digital Office offers countless possibilities for simplifying the organization of work. You should always keep that in mind when looking for suitable candidates, because these things are not only incredibly important to developers, but also to all other employees.

Dress code in the digital board

An change of the corporate culture also affects other areas – for example the topic of the dress code. A nice example of dress code was recently in the press - you only have to look at how much this story was discussed.

Here you can see a picture of the digital council of the federal government. What is striking is the gentleman on the far right, that is IT entrepreneur Illja Maditsch, doctorate in virology, computer science and Founders of the research network Research-Gate.

Corporate culture and dress code

In a Facebook-I read the discussion: This is the only one in the digital council who really has something on the box. Now imagine Mr. Maditsch being in this elevator to the job interview came - he would probably have been sorted out by one or the other, despite the lack of skilled workers.

By the way, in an interview he was asked why he came to the Digital Council in this way. The pragmatic answer was: It was hot that day and he just runs around more often. Incidentally, I also have friends who are mathematicians and who like to take off their shoes in the office. Reason: You can think so better.

Great cultural differences between IT and staff

I have recently the former recruiting director of Deutsche Bahn interviewed on this topic, which tells how, for example, the shoes of applicants or the shorts of the trainee made for conversation.

Culturally, sometimes worlds meet - and clothing is only the tip of the iceberg.

Discrimination in recruiting

Because there are also much more serious aspects in this regard. Diversity is being talked about in companies everywhere, the reality is that 2018 is still being discriminated against.

For example, there are always these experiments in which the same applicant meets an exactly identical one Curriculum vitae applies - only once with a German name and once with a name that suggests a migration background.

Gender Pay Gap also in IT

And the Organization Terres des Femmes did a somewhat bold experiment here, sending the same person to an interview once as a man and once as a woman with exactly the same CV – and showed that the annual salary varies according to gender clear may vary.

These are all aspects that employers have to deal with increasingly when they complain about a shortage of skilled workers. And many do not do it.

Where applicants talk bad about employers

The CHRISS study also asked job applicants and employees: What happens if the employer does not live up to expectations.

• A large part looks around for other jobs when expectations are disappointed or lose their motivation to work.
• But: 43 percent of employees and 37 employees then even pass on their negative opinion about employers.
• And where, of course, is bad talking about employers nowadays? On the internet, of course, and thus publicly. For example, 25 percent of applicants will make negative reviews on employer review portals.

But many employers do not want that to be true.

Employer ratings: Does anyone read that?

At a Lecture, i on the Future staff in Stuttgart I was seriously asked by a recruiter: "Does anyone actually read such employer reviews".

Of course you can destroy your standing as an employer by simply ignoring bad reviews.

Employer Reviews: How important are you?

A survey carried out by eRecruiting provider softgarden 2016 in cooperation with the Personalmagazin shows that over 50 percent of applicants find such evaluations important or very important. 3.000 interviewed applicants who have applied for a new position through softgarden's eRecruitment system.

There are other studies, eg by BITKOM, which show: Employer ratings are on the rise. They are becoming increasingly important. And here the Head to get stuck in the sand would be fatal.

But there are just such reactions that show me: The blind spots on the part of employers are just there. And we have to discuss that when we talk about skills shortages. In this sense, I am looking forward to an exciting discussion.

Top books on the subject

Read text as PDF

Acquire this text as a PDF (only for own use without passing it on according to Terms and conditions): Please send us one after purchase eMail with the desired title supportberufebilder.de, we will then send the PDF to you immediately. You can also purchase text series.

4,99€Buy

Advice on success, goal achievement or marketing

You have Ask about career, Recruiting, personal development or increasing reach? Our AI consultant will help you for 5 euros a month – free for book buyers. We offer special ones for other topics IT services

5,00€ / per month   Book

Book eCourse on Demand

Up to 30 lessons with 4 learning tasks each + final lesson as a PDF download. Please send us one after purchase eMail with the desired title supportberufebilder.de. Alternatively, we would be happy to put your course together for you or offer you a personal, regular one eMail-Course - all further information!

29,99€Buy

Skate eBook as desired

If our store does not offer you your desired topic: We will be happy to put together a book according to your wishes and deliver it in a format of yours Choice. Please sign us after purchase supportberufebilder.de

79,99€Buy